How a simple one-day hiking excursion reveals wonderful people, beautiful landscapes, and colorful history. Imagine walking down an unpaved road moving further and further back in time coming to a lane lined on each side by red cedar trees. At the end of the lane you find in front of you the grand manor house of Mount Aventine once owned by Nathaniel Chapman. It must have truly been a grand scene in its heyday as we were very impressed with the house and its property. The views of the Potomac were truly breathtaking. We were also in lucky that it just so happened that there was a volksmarch going on the same day we were there. We had no idea who these people were but quickly found them to be a very friendly bunch. They welcomed us to their activities even though we were not members and with the help of Art, a volunteer of the Maryland State Park and Forestry Service, helped us to learn the history behind this beautiful house. Chuck, another member, greeted us and was a great help in telling us of the many trails and interesting history.
After avoiding the wondrous smell and sights of the soup and sandwiches offered and sadly declined (as we had just eaten a tasty and large lunch of our own) we continued out the rear of the house to track down the family cemetery. On the way we saw a deer that found us as interesting as we found it but trotted lazily off to a less crowded area of the forest. We continued and reached the cemetery, there are four intricately carved gravestones, and I got a picture of two of them. They were pretty old dating to the mid 1800’s. Several small, fragrant boxwoods surround the graveyard. We left there and headed towards the river when we again ran into Chuck who was packing up a water station for the walkers, he told us about the marsh trail and said it led to some VIP cabins. VIP cabins? I suddenly got the idea he could take our picture and as we poked about the rivers though we would find the marsh trail and try it out.
Nathaniel Chapman was friends of Augustine Washington, the father of George Washington, and George Mason. Nathaniel Chapman was one of founders of the Ohio Company of Virginia, which helped open up the west to exploration and settlement. His great grandson, Pearson Chapman built the current manor house in 1840, (The original house was burned down). Along with raising sheep and hogs and growing corn and wheat the property was also the site of the largest Shad Fisheries on the Potomac. Federal forces occupied the manor during the Civil War. In 1914 the last Chapman died. Mount Aventine is now part of the Chapman Forest State Park, 2200 acres of forest and historical land purchased by the state in the year 2000. Much information can be found from the Friends of Chapman Forest website. Such as details of the property’s history, the rich variety of rare plants and animals, examples of the huge old growth trees.
Leaving Chuck to his work, we head off down the trail towards the Marsh trail sucking on a couple of peppermints he politely offered us. We found the entrance of the trail and according to the sign was a 6k trail or about three miles. The Volkwalkers had conviently put up little informative signs along the way. We enjoyed learning about spicebush, cottonwood trees, and marshes. It was a gentle walk that took us to a marsh made a beautiful bright green in the sunlight by the algae scum thriving on its surface. The trail passed through previously flooded parts of the woods to a beach along the Potomac River. We took time there to investigate shells, which surprisingly very plentiful, bright river stones and pretty little pieces of green and white glass worn smooth by the actions of the water sand and time. There was also a great abundance of old tennis balls and though not as many but still too many old glass, plastic bottles and other trash delivered by a river that seemed to be saying “stop throwing this crap in me”. We agree and wondered how long it would take to clean all of that up. Joan and I glanced at each other after a while…did not Chuck say something about VIP cabins? What kind of cabins would be out here in the middle of nowhere? Would we ever get to them? We were not long in wondering as we found them or what was left of the cabins further down the beach. There were about three or four large cabins spaced far apart. One was clearly older then the rest. While approaching this one we found another volksmarcher this time business card in hand and again, a gift of knowledge for us. It turns out this particular cabin was owned by a secretary of none other then President Hoover who would take the presidential yacht for a cruise down here from Washington DC to go fishing from this very spot.
The logo on his business card said Freestate Happy Walker followed by a map of picture of our far state being hassled by a giant blue crab. Beneath that read Volks March Club. As it turns out there is a National American Volkssport Association, which boasts 350 separate clubs in the United States and Thousands of clubs worldwide. There is in fact an International Volkssport Federation. This particular club, the Freestate Happy Wanders was down for a walking event today. They had a wide age range though seemed to be largely the over forty crowd. The walks are not pledge walks nor are they competitive they are just for fun. A wonderful group of people and we were very grateful for them for there help and knowledge.
Our return trip to the manor house was easy walking save for the end, which we encountered a breathtaking hill to climb. On our way back we encountered fenced fields and barrels that at first glance we assumed to be some kind of waste barrels. Then we remembered the horses we saw when we came in and wondered if maybe horses had been kept on the property. After a little time spent searching the internet we learned that from 1954 until 1987 the farm was owned the Baroness Margit Sigray Bessenyey who along with others such as Sir Gobert Szechenyi fought to establish in the United States a breeding program for Hungarian horses. She was a granddaughter of the Copper mining king Marcus Daly whose mansion is located in Bitterroot, Montana. The Murray Suite now contains her horse collections. The Hungarian horses a rare and is a breed known for their showmanship. Her horses won hundreds of ribbons and trophies. Her exploits can be read about in a book by Virginia Weisel Johnson titled “The Heavenly Horses” available from Amazon. Further research into the story or the Baroness Bessenyey and Sir Szechenyi reveals quite a story of adventure and intrigue and they risked there lives to escape Nazi controlled Europe during WWII to bring the these horses to our country. The Baroness Margit Sigray Bessenyey died on October 23, 1984 in New York upon returning to from a visit in Hungry and Sir Ernest Gobert Szechenyi died in 2005 at his residence in Italy.
Here are some additional websites for more information on Hungarian Horses.
http://www.hungarianhorse.com/hha_news_sep98.html contains some detailed biographical information of the Baroness Margit Sigray Bessenyey.
Some Hungarian horse farms
